


Jewelry

by Sylv



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series)
Genre: F/M, Onesided
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-03
Updated: 2012-12-03
Packaged: 2017-11-20 04:56:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/581518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylv/pseuds/Sylv
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beast Boy usually doesn't say what he means, and that tends to get him in trouble. Starfire doesn't quite understand the nuances of English.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jewelry

"Oh, Beast Boy, it is glorious!"

The boy smiled shyly, hands behind his head in a nervous gesture that he had picked up when he was younger, and coughed slightly. "Yeah, well…"

Starfire held up the jewelry in her hands, letting the light surround it, and examining it from every angle that she could, an ecstatic expression on her face. Her green eyes took in everything about it, and missed nothing. The hemp was frayed and thin, and looked as though it might break in a moment, but it did not matter to her. On it, sea glass of every color imaginable glinted, smiling and waving back at her. The greens and blues were most prominent, but there were a few other shades winking delicately here and there. They were of all different sizes, and carefully chosen, it seemed, because they were rounded, and less likely to poke her with sharp edges. In the middle there was a small metal heart dangling easily, soft and smoothed and perfect.

The pads of Starfire's fingers slid up and down the stones, feeling out the unique grooves and bumps of the sea glass. She spun it quickly between two of her fingers before stopping suddenly, letting it sit quietly on the bed between the two of them. The alien princess glanced up at her friend, unable to express her joy with mere words. She took his hands, deciding to try anyways, because he needed to know exactly what his meant to her.

"I cannot believe that you have done this for me! It must have taken you much effort and time to make this!" she trailed off, still holding his hands, and gazing lovingly down at the bracelet that was waiting for her to wear it.

Beast Boy chuckled quietly, his embarrassment lessening as time went on, realizing that he was foolish to think that Starfire would make fun of him for doing something so sentimental. "It didn't take  _that_ much work…" he countered half-heartedly, pleased that his friend seemed to like it so much.

Another minute of silence passed where Starfire marveled at her new accessory, and Beast Boy marveled at the fact that he was still sitting on Starfire's bed, watching her enjoy his gift. It wasn't that he didn't want her to like it, but normally he would have hightailed it out of there as fast as possible to avoid any of the hugs or thanks for, heaven forbid,  _laughs_  that would come from her. It was nice, to sit here and know that something he did was appreciated.

"Not that I do not enjoy this immensely…" Starfire began, causing Beast Boy to look up at her again. "But I am wondering- why did you do this for me?"

The boy pondered the answer to this question for quite a while. Why had he done this for her? He cared for her greatly, but she already knew that. He cared for all of the others too. And why for Starfire specifically? Why not Robin or Cyborg (okay, he knew the answer to that one)? Why not Raven? Why his indefinitely happy teammate from another planet?

The answers for those questions had to be there somewhere, but he just couldn't find them. He didn't really care that much either. He supposed that Starfire would have been least likely to throw it back in his face, or give him weird looks because of it. He also liked to make things with his hands, and hadn't since making that box for Terra. Perhaps he had wanted to try his hands at arts and crafts again? Sure, that could be part of it. But what else was there?

It didn't matter did it? No, not really. "I just wanted to do this for you, Star." was his final answer. It made him fidget uncomfortably as he said it, and he could have sworn that he felt his face heating up, but none of this seemed to matter to Starfire. Her green eyes went from politely puzzled to soft and grateful. She leaned over and grasped him in a tight hug which he returned, calming down immediately. It didn't matter that he didn't know what his motives were. All that mattered was that she liked it.

Once they broke apart, Beast Boy helped Starfire fasten the gift around her wrist, and she admired it again from this new angle, the smile never leaving her face.

\--

It became a sort of nervous habit of his, along with putting his hands behind his head, to look her over quickly, to make sure that it was there. She had confided in him once that she never took it off, but he had to see it with his own eyes, had to make sure that she hadn't been lying to him and took it off when she thought that he wasn't looking. His green eyes, so different than hers, searched it out, and the constriction in his chest only loosened once he saw it hanging there.

\--

_Starfire's thumbs moved in a sort of blur as she controlled her character in the video game, moving him back and forth across the field of battle before lunging in for a devastating kick. She crowed as his character went sprawling on his back. He hopped up again with a curse, and went after her with a renewed vigor. The two of them battled it out, groans and whoops being called in turn depending on who had the upper hand._

_Beast Boy growled and bent over his controller so that he was hunched almost double, fingers quivering with excitement. If he could only have the few seconds that he needed to complete this move, Starfire out be out of the game, and he would win the battle. And he couldn't lose to her, especially not since he had been playing for so many more years than she had. His tongue poked out of his mouth without his knowledge, and his brow furrowed in concentration._

_Starfire swung her arms in the air as she attempted to execute some ridiculous moves, a maniac glint in her eye as she did so. Beast Boy glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, alarmed and thinking that she might need some sort of assistance. As he did so, he caught sight of the sun shining dully off of a large piece of blue sea glass. His entire consciousness went slack for a moment as he registered it was there. A swelling feeling rose within him, and he smiled. That was, until Starfire rose into the air with joy and smirked at him, "I am victorious, Beast Boy!"_

" _Wha… how did that happen?!"_

_\--_

" _Starfire, you can't do that! Just… just roll the dice."_

_Raven put her head in her hands as she watched the overenthusiastic alien chuck the dice halfway across the room. Cyborg chuckled as he went to look at what number she had rolled, and bring the dice back so that he could roll for his turn. Starfire grinned sheepishly and sat back on her hands, waiting for her friend to retrieve the dice and tell her how far she could move on the board._

_The three of them were playing Life, one of "the most fun games ever!" in Cyborg's humble opinion. Beast Boy was sitting on the couch watching them, as he had walked into the room in the middle of their game, and had been promised that he could play the next game. He laughed at every turn of bad luck that his friends encountered, and cheered them on as when they hit a winning streak. As Starfire reached across the board to move her car a few spaces forwards, the boy caught a glimpse of the silver heart hanging and moving back and forth as her hand did._

_Beast Boy watched it move, transfixed, and wondered at how she seemed so comfortable with it, so natural. He would say that she had forgotten that it was there, but Starfire never forgot. Not when it came to things like that._

_\--_

A constricted grunt escaped from Robin's mouth as Starfire hugged him tightly, beaming. "Glorious morning, Robin!" she cried joyfully, clasping her hands together as the perfect picture of innocence. Beast Boy couldn't help but smile at this, even as he recognized that the two were an item now. He knew that it would happen sometime, but the fact that both of them were aware of it now was weird; they were all used to Robin being so obtuse that he couldn't see what was right in front of him. It was incredible how long it had taken him to understand that Starfire was there, and that she had always been there.

In a more romantic way than the other three, of course.

The green changeling went to take another sip of his orange juice, still looking at Starfire. Her attitude towards Robin hadn't seemed to change, whereas his had changed dramatically. She still treated him as the friend that he would always be, but he felt a need to become 'The Boyfriend'. Something like that. Anyways, it made for an odd relationship, but the boy accepted it for what it was; perhaps they would settle into comfortable roles somewhere down the road.

He smiled into his cup of juice, took a small gulp, flicked his eyes up, and choked.

Where there was normally a sparkle of silver metal, where there was the duller glint of greens and blues on a smooth surface, where frayed ends met frayed ends and tied, where there was normally a sliding tinkle of noise, now there was… nothing.

Alarmed, Robin looked over at his younger friend. "Are you okay?" he asked, taking a few steps forward as Beast Boy continued to cough and splutter, his face steadily reddening. The boy tried to answer a few times, but was cut off by hacking fits.

Finally, he was able to squeeze out a few words, which were, "I feel sick." Beast Boy turned and scampered out of the room, refusing to stop or look at anything until he got there.

Once the sliding door shut behind him, he fell to his knees, still coughing, and hoping fervently that the roiling in his stomach would stop before he really did throw up. He took deep, shuddering breaths, attempting to steady his breathing and winced as another heave threatened to have him puke up the breakfast that he had just eaten. Closing his eyes and hoping the lightheadedness would dissipate, he couldn't get rid of the image of Starfire's bare wrist, one where he had gotten to used to seeing his handmade gift hanging from. How was it possible? Why had she taken it off?

He had  _made_ it for her. She wore it, she wore it, she wore it, and all of a sudden… she didn't? No, no, it was impossible. It couldn't be real.

Sure, Beast Boy had known that Robin and Starfire were dating now. You couldn't have eyes in your head and not notice that. He had been happy for them. Smiling, laughing, cheering on their blundering way into boyfriend/girlfriend status. He was happy for them. He was! But for some reason it had never occurred to him that maybe once she was in a real relationship with someone, she wouldn't want to have anything that would make it look like she was romantically attached to anyone else. And he hadn't meant it that way, he really hadn't…

He hadn't, right?

Beast Boy clutched his head with trembling hands, feeling as though his world had been turned upside down, and all of a sudden, he was hanging from the ceiling. It wasn't like Starfire was shunning him as a friend, as she had greeted him most cheerfully only moments before she had spoken to Robin. He didn't really understand why there was a giant hole in his heart now. He didn't understand why he felt sick at the very thought of this. He didn't understand why it  _hurt_ so much.

And he definitely didn't understand why there was a prickling sensation at the corners of his eyes.


End file.
